Dumped debris contained asbestos

Police are seeking a man after the shop robbery on Sunday night. Picture: Police Scotland

A builder has been fined £1,800 for dumping debris containing asbestos outside a visitors centre.

Officers who discovered the 10-ton pile of waste traced it back to a house that was being renovated four miles away.

Donald McAllister, 46, who runs a roofing, joinery and building firm in Bonnybridge, Stirlingshire, claimed he paid a man £700 to get rid of the waste. Instead, it was taken from the house in Lanton, Roxburghshire, and dumped outside the entrance to the Harestanes Countryside Visitor Centre near Ancrum.

McAllister pleaded guilty, at Selkirk Sheriff Court, to a charge of failing to take proper steps to dispose of the building waste under the Environmental Protection Act and was fined £1,800.

Samples taken from the waste were later found to contain hazardous white asbestos called chrysolite.

Scottish Borders Council later removed the waste to a special site at a cost of £1,768.80.